Corsaire

I’ve been wondering about this for a while. I’ve been noticing that most of the riders I know by now that I talk to, ride with in the club, some racers among them, who have a Double are not really strong enough for this set-up. I could count them with the fingers of one hand those riders who really “deserve” to have a double. I, personally, shamelessly have a triple (ride at the B* level by now). One example comes to hand, the other day we went on a very hilly ride where all the riders I was with, w/o exception (well me, the only triple) had a double. I was like saying to myself: “what did I get myself into, these guys look very strong and all have doubles, I’m going to get dropped!”
But then again I thought it’s not a race so I’ll just stick to my rhythm and tempo on the up hills where some were steep and long by the way. The whole ride was 55 miles or so.
Obviously, most of the riders once on the up hills went strong, cranking up big time, they surged ahead about 82 yards, I kept my rhythm, I was third from the last rider in most of the hills, but the funny thing was that by mile 35 or so most of these “double, tough riders” were spent big time, the only rider who “lived up to his double” started hammering at 18mph average for the last 10 or so last miles and I was the only one who pretty much kept up with him, right behind him, the others were lagging behind and only one was hanging on for dear life but got dropped at the end , the very last few miles.

So, I’ve come to realize the double set-up in most cases is just a pride thing.
Corsaire J